The trap of Arrays.asList

The java.util.Arrays provide convenient way to create a fixed-size list initialized to contain several elements:

    public static <T> List<T> asList(T... a) {
        return new ArrayList<T>(a);
    }

    /**
     * @serial include
     */
    private static class ArrayList<E> extends AbstractList<E>
        implements RandomAccess, java.io.Serializable
    {
        private static final long serialVersionUID = -2764017481108945198L;
        private final E[] a;

        ArrayList(E[] array) {
            if (array==null)
                throw new NullPointerException();
            a = array;
        }

        public int size() {
            return a.length;
        }

        public Object[] toArray() {
            return a.clone();
        }

        public <T> T[] toArray(T[] a) {
            int size = size();
            if (a.length < size)
                return Arrays.copyOf(this.a, size,
                                     (Class<? extends T[]>) a.getClass());
            System.arraycopy(this.a, 0, a, 0, size);
            if (a.length > size)
                a[size] = null;
            return a;
        }

        public E get(int index) {
            return a[index];
        }

        public E set(int index, E element) {
            E oldValue = a[index];
            a[index] = element;
            return oldValue;
        }

        public int indexOf(Object o) {
            if (o==null) {
                for (int i=0; i<a.length; i++)
                    if (a[i]==null)
                        return i;
            } else {
                for (int i=0; i<a.length; i++)
                    if (o.equals(a[i]))
                        return i;
            }
            return -1;
        }

        public boolean contains(Object o) {
            return indexOf(o) != -1;
        }
    }

  

List list = Arrays.asList("Larry", "Moe", "Curly");

It seems we get the the instance of ArrayList which inherits AbstractList. But it dones't override the method of add, remove..., etc. As a result, below code will throw exception

 

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		List list = Arrays.asList("Larry", "Moe", "Curly");
///		list.add("Peter");
		list.remove(0);
	} 

The result is:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException
	at java.util.AbstractList.remove(AbstractList.java:144)
	at ArraysTest.main(ArraysTest.java:11)

 By looking at the source code you will find the cause

AbstractList.class

    public boolean add(E e) {
        add(size(), e);
        return true;
    }

    public void add(int index, E element) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
    }

    public E remove(int index) {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
    }

 

So if we need to manipulate the list from Arrays.asList, the right way is to create a new list

List list = Arrays.asList("Larry", "Moe", "Curly");
List arrayList= new ArrayList(list);